End Global Poverty
The crisis to end global poverty has sparked worldwide attention!
The UNICEF reports that “50,000 children die every day to poverty related causes” and “25,000 of which are under the age of five.”
And now, amongst the economic crisis more people have turned their heads towards the urgent concern of world poverty and the impact of our present financial meltdown on third world countries.
If the crisis has impacted those who struggle to cope with high food and fuel prices, what is to become of those who can barely survive below poverty?
The Global Call to Action Against Poverty warns, “the economic meltdown which has spiraled will have a devastating effect on people living below poverty”.
The United Nations has voiced that the world poverty crisis “has not received the urgency or attention it demands”.
And rightly so! When millions are spent to bail out wealthy bankers and billions more are spent to fund war, but the world can’t seem to find the extra money to meet the basic needs of millions of children and families who struggle to survive below the grimmest poverty levels!
World poverty is a rampantly plaguing concern and there has never been more of an urgency to address poverty and help children in need.
So what is the world doing to put an end to the pressing crisis of global poverty?
In 2000, leaders of the United Nations gathered for the first time to discuss poverty and establish the new Millennium Development Goal to put an end to world poverty by the year 2015.
The campaign aims to unite millions of people across the world in an effort to fight global poverty, and remarkably people are coming through in extraordinary ways.
People from every nation and walk of life are taking a stand against poverty. Last year over 44 million people from 127 countries participated in over 6,540 events across the world in the campaign to end global poverty and broke the world record for greatest number of people to ever stand up against poverty within 24 hours. For example, last year:
- 9 cities throughout Europe participated in the installation of 9 huge chairs without seats to signify and illustrate that people worldwide won’t sit down until governments provide better relief and aid to end global poverty.
- In Zimbabwe 5,000 people gathered before their government to seek access to better health, water, and sanitation facilities.
- Over 10,000 people in Delhi gathered in the streets before Parliament for the sake of addressing world poverty.
- In Daltonganj, India 30,000 people from over 600 villages gathered to seek poverty alleviation assistance from local governments.
During these hard economic times, it’s more important than ever to NOT withdraw from our commitment to end global poverty. We need to work harder to help people in need, as this is when people need help most.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about World Poverty:
- Do you feel that global poverty is a pressing crisis? Are governments not doing enough?
- Do you feel that our present economic situation will impact third world countries?
- What can you do to take a stand against poverty? Or, what small sacrifices can you afford to make to contribute towards ending global poverty?
16. April 2009 at 1:20 am :
[...] MicroGiving touches briefly on the worldwide effort to End Global Poverty. [...]
16. April 2009 at 1:51 am :
Global poverty is a tough one to deal with when you are an American trapped in poverty when you shouldn’t be. It’s hard to think about people in faraway lands when you see your nearby neighbor struggling.
Many in our own country cannot get decent health care so it’s pretty hard to think about helping with healthcare for faraway people. I care of course, but I’ll be honest I would give my money faster to someone closer to home than I would overseas. Our country as a whole could help others much better if we lifted so many rules, regulations, restrictions, ordinances, codes and goodness knows what else that prevents people from helping themselves.
The poor in this country really cant help others in other country. We are constantly struggling to keep up with the rules set by those who have the money to live by those rules then want to help people from other countries instead of helping those who are struggling to keep from losing their kids, paying tons of fines, keep their own selves alive without decent healthcare much of which was caused by those with the money to push for all the laws, codes, restrictions, etc that keep the poor in a constant cycle.
Whenever someone finds themselves in some sort of trouble we are always quick to direct them to some type of program rather than donating a few bucks to help out and encouraging others to do the same. Every time we direct someone to a program, it only costs every single wage earner more money and keeps them struggling and complaining about everyone on welfare sucking up their funds. Then if that person can’t get on a program or raise their income to fix the problem we are quick to call some child or code enforcement that will cost the poor peson everything and put the burden back onto the taxpayers who then complain about that system.
This is a really tough subject for me….I do see the horrible suffering in other countries, but I also blame those in our country who have set the rules for everyone, keeping the poverty and low income struggling so hard that we CAN’T help anyone else we are too busy avoiding charges for child neglect, or paying fines for home/automotive code violations. If we poor folk were in stable situations we could be helping everyone who wants to help the fight against global poverty….I think MANY of us really want to, but we also don’t want to lose our own children or property because we are charged with neglect. Yes, kids die in other countries…in ours they just get taken away from poor parents, put into the system that often turns them in to emotionally damaged young adults who wind up criminals….and the parent grieves with no sympathy because we called her unfit because she couldn’t live up to the standards set by those with the money to live by them.
16. April 2009 at 12:44 pm :
Global poverty will most likely get worse over the next few years as the world regains a positive financial outlook. Finding great and new innovative ideas on the matter to get government, business and individuals working together as a team is the challenge.
16. April 2009 at 3:47 pm :
I think its hard to deal with global poverty when things are so bad in our own country at the moment. It saddens me to see so many go without not only in other countries but right here in the United States. We are bailing our big businesses when what we should be doing is helping the people. Wouldn’t giving money to the people to pay off the mortgages, pay off the creditor, the cars whatever stimulate the economy in a more positive way? My thought is if people were able to get out of the dept they are in they will start to buy again and the banks will be loaning again thus improving the economy as a whole. Giving money to big businesses who use it for greed doesn’t seem to be working at all. We can see it everyday people losing homes due to the inability to pay the mortgages. In the south people have been hit so hard by hurricanes the insurance has cause their mortgage notes to rise so much that the original note which was affordable is now lower than then insurance amounts. This is the national flood plan and state insurance policies, our own government is what is cause people to lose their homes by being greedy and charging so much to insure homes that it results in people going into foreclosure. Its sad all that money for what was said to save people from losing their homes is not in the hands of the people. Homes are being repossesed left and right.
16. April 2009 at 7:01 pm :
Global poverty is a major situation the world is face with today. We are aware that their lots of organization tackling this issue for years and its seem like the problem in not getting any better.
This world wide epidemic need to address more agressively by the world body and the united nation, Because its about time global poverty be a major topic in every news paper and the broadcasting media so the world can see the different kinds of poverty each nation face with on a daily basic.
Our Government can play a major role by starting the ball rooling, Then other countries will follow. I can asure you this wont be easy task the (World Need More Love And Peace Not Hate Or war) Unfortunately some nation choose weapons of mass distruction before peace.
If can we acheived more global peace and love. Then we will see more of the global poverty issues resolved, So as nation we cannot give this struggle we must continue fighting Global Poverty.
17. April 2009 at 4:35 am :
I’m really with Michelle here, it is very hard to consider the poverty anywhere else when you see your own neighbors suffering. We are not cold hearted, we know the suffering globally is terrible. We know people are suffering worse horrors than we are in many cases. I’m sure we all want to help too but we are all looking for a way to help our own selves.
Many compare American Poverty to the poverty of faraway lands. Granted, we are not really that bad, but also in those faraway lands people are at least allowed to live in the slums they live in. They can make a plywood shack, they are allowed to be poor. They certainly don’t like it…but it doesn’t sound like the government is trooping in to take their kids away, or fine them for doing what they can do for shelter. Our own laws keep us from moving ahead, then we are told we are just lazy and don’t have to live this way. Basically we are expected to get more money….not allowed to find ways to live with the money we have and that keeps the poor in a constant state of being poor.
We are stuck this way because American Poverty simply doesn’t look as gruesome as faraway poverty and people really don’t want to help those who they judge as lazy.
I also agree with Michelle, bailout monies should be given to the lower incomes who will use it to make life better for their family which means buying a car, a modest home they could afford better than the raising rents, or paying off back due mortgages and car notes to prevent the repossession. Buying clothes for the current and future year for their kids. Knowing they will be poor again soon they will buy all the stuff they need and that will generate the economy. Many would be stocking up on foods they can store, getting furniture. There are so many things poor people never buy new and if they can’t get it used they go without. If they had money in their hand they would be getting a few new things they have needed but done without as they waited to find it at GoodWill.
17. April 2009 at 4:48 am :
Interesting Jason, do have any ideas on how we could get people working together. Many of the commenters on this blog are known MicroGiving recipients who are all struggling. I know many here want to be donors, not recipients. We see the horrors of faraway places and we see families worse than us right on our own street. Often we do help those near us so they don’t fall to far behind the pack. Many of us have a good reputation for community service of some kind…but we all probably secretly hope that someone in an income bracket higher than ours will want to help us get closer to the pack and maybe even walk along side them…perhaps even move ahead and be one of the ones secure enough their position to be able to go back and help pick up stragglers. The farther behind you fall the less likely you are to ever catch up. We who walk at the end of the line know this…if you get separated from the pack you are on your own and there is a good chance you will never catch up.
So….since lots of us are walking at the end of the line and are quickly being separated from one income level into another we are trying to keep ourselves and those nearest to us going. We are in no position to walk back down the line to pick up stragglers..we are barely trudging along as it is. What do you suggest for US? We want to help too but many just don’t know how to do it without getting so lost we become totally on our own.
17. April 2009 at 2:55 pm :
Hey Michelle – thanks for your feedback! Indeed it is difficult to deal with global poverty when people struggle enough as it is in our own country. Hopefully the downturn in the economy will wake people up to the urgent need of helping others…
18. April 2009 at 12:31 am :
I’m not so sure the downturn in our economy is going to encourage anyone to help others in America. We do all seem to reach out to those in other countries, but in America we tell the poor to get on government programs which reduces the income for all working Americans. Those working Americans with reduced incomes due to high taxes come to hate, disrespect and blame the poor…the very ones they instead of helping pushed onto the programs. This cycle in our own country keeps so many of us from being able to help those in the faraway lands. I think if some of the 269 billionaires in the USA (the highest in the world compared to the second highest of only 29) thought a bit more of the American poor we could straighten up our own country and there would be many more people available to address global poverty. We can’t help other countries when our own is in a mess, the best the American poor can do is help their neighbor while we watch everyone else more interested in helping people outside of our own country.
I’m rather bitter on this one, not because I don’t care but because in America poor people shouldn’t even have to be giving food or shelter to their neighbors. We should not have to be breaking laws by sharing prescription drugs with a neighbor who can’t get medications…yes it’s done all the time but seen as a crime rather than poor folks helping each other. Do you know how much diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure medication is shared? These are not drugs that get you high, they are drugs that keep you alive and many can’t get them. When one shares, and the other receives…both are committing crimes.
We should not be breaking laws to run an extension cord for a family whose lights got cut off. Yeah…I was evicted from a place and in trouble with a power company for doing that! In fact that was part of the documentary done on my family by the Open Society Institute. The family had 6 kids, two working adults and could not afford their power bill we hoped running a cord and having lights on in that house would prevent someone from calling CPS. Another family in that area I lived in got cited for raising chickens which he also shared with other low income families. We commit crimes when we try to help our own struggling poor neighbors then we pay fines or go to jail for that…but most American wealthy do not want to help us because they simply see us as lazy…or even worse…criminals.
20. April 2009 at 5:56 pm :
Oh how this angers me:
“When millions are spent to bail out wealthy bankers and billions more are spent to fund war, but the world can’t seem to find the extra money to meet the basic needs of millions of children and families who struggle to survive below the grimmest poverty levels!”
I cannot even express my disgust in the matter~
20. April 2009 at 6:05 pm :
Do you feel that global poverty is a pressing crisis?
ABSOLUTELY!!! Global poverty is something that is on my mind every day. Even with my current financial situation, I think about others, and try to donate when I can. I can’t stand to think about children starving, and growing up without parents (because they couldn’t afford medicine). It sickens me.
Are governments not doing enough?
I do not believe our government is doing enough. We are the strongest nation, yet we can’t help out our fellow human beings. Write your politicians, and tell them about the atrocities going on in the world today. If they get enough letters, they’ll listen.
Do you feel that our present economic situation will impact third world countries?
Of course. People have less to give right now, so the little money that was going elsewhere to help others is going to be even less.
What can you do to take a stand against poverty?
I raise awareness about children in Uganda, through Invisible Children, and am very involved in TOMS Shoes (every pair sold, a pair is given to a child in need). These are very important to me, and I feel that telling others about them is key to the work that they are doing.
Or, what small sacrifices can you afford to make to contribute towards ending global poverty?
If you make a promise to yourself that you will spend less money on eating out, or buying coffee, then you can definitely make an impact with that money saved.
Please look at:
http://www.invisiblechildren.com
and
http://www.tomsshoes.com
(you can also save $5 on your TOMS transaction with the promo code CAMPUSUTAUS)
20. April 2009 at 7:42 pm :
JT you are not along in your anger and disgust.
I am discouraged somewhat with my own country. We are the 8th richest country in the world, we have the largest economy in the world, and the most billionaires in the world…why on earth to we have people living at or below poverty in America?! I will give the USA credit, we come in 6th most generous per capita but I wonder where that generosity goes? Sometimes I don’t think anyone really sees that we have a problem in America. We can see the problem in faraway lands, here it’s hidden under tons of government programs and high taxes that everyone assumes is just going into welfare programs…but nobody sees those who don’t qualify for all those government programs often simply because of one or two disqualifying things that don’t earn you a document of ineligibility, you just can’t get your application past the receptionist.
About 2 years ago Medicaid denied my wrist braces. I paid for them first then was suppose to be reimbursed. I told my doctor about it and he wanted to see the denial so he would know what proper DSM codes he needed for them to cover my braces. I called, they said I was denied though I have been wearing braces for over 23 years at that point…anyhow when I asked for a statement I was told..we don’t do that. December 2007 I got a prescription for my leg braces. Yet again the braces ordered would not be covered. Ankle braces same deal. You are not technically denied…you are expected to order something else within your diagnostic code even if that something else wont help you.
Those of you who work and pay into the funds that help people like me, imagine that medicaid would put out about $400 of your tax dollars on equipment that they will allow me, but then it just sits in a closet because it’s not usable. They will do this for me every few years too…for equipment that might just sit in their original boxes. You are paying money for goods people can’t even use! Don’t worry though…I don’t bother getting the free equipment from medicaid that I can’t use. I save up and buy my equipment second hand which keeps me in the cycle of poverty that nobody sees, because afterall with SSI and Medicaid you must get everything handed to you right?
20. April 2009 at 7:44 pm :
0h, by the way, my doctor knows what the deal is. Many doctors do know about the whole denial without being denied and the whole thing with no denial letters. They are just as frustrated and there is nothing they can do except give you a diagnosis you don’t have. Some doctors will do that, but most good ones of course will not.
21. April 2009 at 4:12 pm :
What happened to “We Are The World” are we no longer the pople to make a better day? Should we stop giving? I think not! What has happened to stop everyone from coming together to help others, each other, neighbors, strangers, helping the world? If we don’t help others and each other what will happen to the world as a whole? We really need to be “We Are The World” again and lets start giving. Lets make a better day. I think that the world needs a wake up call, forget trying to killing each other people are dying everyday from poverty and lack of medical care. We have to do something now to help ourselves and others or we will continue to see the world fall apart around us. I was in the frame of mind that ifs hard to think of the rest of the world when our own economy is so bad but I was wrong that is when we should be looking at the rest of the world because we are the world.
22. April 2009 at 4:08 am :
Essentially, we need some new ideas and paradigms based on Government, Business and other organizational interaction. I propose the following examples as examples only and fully aware of the issues that surround them but these type of out-of-the-box thinking is what I think where we need to go in terms of future ideas.
If the government can justify tax increases, they can implement a mandatory “giving tax” on our paychecks for example and have the individual choose the cause to give too.
Business should be required by law to provide work-from-home to disabled individuals for example and/or provide a percentage of work to lower-income families only.
On the web, there are many new innovative sites such as this site as well as Everywun and BetterTheWorld that support these types of new interactions to help people in need. Maybe the government should look more closely at what is going on?
Just my 2 cents.
22. April 2009 at 11:44 am :
Jason – thanks for your feedback. Those are some very interesting proposals…
22. April 2009 at 10:53 pm :
I have to admit you are right…I’m just not quite that strong yet. I’m a bit angry these days. I watched a tornado tear into our small community and I’m hearing every day about people who just lost everything and we all know that these families must find housing or they are risking losing their kids all because of their lack of ability to provide material things. Living on Ramen and Rice again because I had to dump money into a brand new tire I couldn’t afford. I got some money for some work that I did, but I am also running a car that has been dying over a year and doesn’t run well. My truck died a week after we bought it. But I had some canned sweet potato and some canned pumpkin I use to make pet food with, plus some left over pet food from the Crippled Critter benefit. I donated what little I had knowing that others in our community are doing the same, but from outside….so little. Nobody cares about these folks and that makes me bitter. I have trouble caring about faraway people right now while nobody is caring about the needs of people in my community. It’s greedy and it’s wrong….I know that, but I’m human and sadly I’m not the truly charitable person I thought I was. I feel bad for my thoughts, but I can’t seem to change them right now.
I’m sure I’m not alone struggling in this world and having these thoughts. I hope my negative thoughts shed some light on how others might be thinking too.
22. April 2009 at 11:07 pm :
I love this idea! When I was unable to work outside my home there was a shoeshop where I lived in New Hampshire. It was called Encore Shoe. I don’t know if they even exsit anymore, but I did home work with them till a car accident denied transportation for me. I hadn’t at that time been able to get a license because my legs were casted or splinted too often for me to drive…anyhow I hand stitched leather shoes, moccasin type things. I was paid for each completed shoe which was brought in and inspected by other disabled people who were able to leave their homes to sit at an inspection table. My mom too did home work from a company called Mal Tool Engineering in New Hampshire. She soldered components onto mother board type things. I couldn’t do it because by that time my hands had got bad and my fine motor control is not great in my hands. My mom was paid for each board completed.
These jobs were excellent jobs for home bound disabled people, but we both moved around the same time to the southeast and couldn’t find home jobs in our area that actually paid a wage enough to live on without the medical benefits of Medcaid/Medicare. My mom found a supplemental job of a remailer, but it paid extremely little and once she was unable to drive (she was in a coma for a lung disorder but her recovery was slow and she couldn’t drive) She lost that job. Both of us used employment services for the disabled and in the end both my mother and I were encouraged to go on disability. I was encouraged to go on a bit before she was because my husband was in prison and I had two disabled kids. She was married at the time to a man with a good income and didn’t really need to work. She wasn’t encouraged to disability till he died.
25. April 2009 at 2:38 am :
I am brand new here, not quite three weeks. I’ve read through each blog and just felt I needed to say what was on my heart.
I am not unsympathetic to the circumstances that so many of our fellow Americans find themselves. I totally agree that we have an incredible need, right here on our own soil. But I must say this, and I am speaking only from my heart, and from my own personal experiences, I firmly believe that few in this country, have any concept of the level of poverty and hunger that is life in some third-world countries – my experience being in Haiti. I know I will incur the anger and wrath from some, and I understand, but I do not believe that any child in the US, is forced to eat mud cakes and drink fetid water containing human feces, bacteria, parasites – the same water that was just used to rinse out the toilet pot at the hut nearby, because there is nothing else to fill their bellies. Our mothers in America are not forced to make a choice among her children as to who she will leave to die, and who she thinks is strong enough to survive another day without food or water. We here grieve over a child who dies, in these countries, such as Haiti, children die by the hundreds, thousands every day, there is no time for grief, because it is literally the survival of the fittest, and frankly, the childen just don’t qualify. As many who have written their blog, I too, am very passionate about poverty, only my passion lies in Haiti. I have been under fire for choosing to serve outside my own country. People have attacked me verbally in public, in my own church and place of employment, for serving in a foreign land. But those same people who accuse me of being anti-American, or a traitor choose to look the other way in their own community when a disabled person, unable to assist themselves, cannot move their wheelchair up over the curb. They won’t help an elderly person cross the street, they won’t offer assistance to someone in need because “they don’t want to get involved,” or it’s “not their place to interfere”, they didn’t have time. They refuse to donate to the family who just lost everything in a house fire, or tornado, because they have worked hard for their money, and no one helped them when their basement flooded!!! And they certainly have never held a child whose distended belly literally is moving because of the size and number of parasites that are suffocating her, feeding on the very little nutrition her body contains. Graphic, ugly, horrifying, yes, all this and more, more than most can wrap their brain around – including me, and I did hold this very same child and watched the life drain from her body. Yes, we have children here who reside in homes with no running water, with no indoor plumbing, I do not dispute that – we have that in the community I now reside in. But there are programs in every county, in every state – there are government and state facilites, there is a legal system – granted, many are corrupt and faulty, but they are available. In countries such as Haiti, there is nothing. There is no government. No state, no “programs”, no legal system to protect and serve. Children in Haiti have two daily goals, to find food today, and live to see tomorrow. Few meet their first, and too many never have a tomorrow. I have probably said enough!
27. April 2009 at 1:33 pm :
Keryl –
Everything you’ve said is very alarming! Thanks for sharing your insight about Haiti. You have a way with words that paints a very compelling scene of what life is like for the poor living in Haiti…
29. April 2009 at 2:09 am :
I believe to end world poverty is through an World Order with the slogan named World Peace through love.
29. April 2009 at 5:43 am :
I agree like keryl – I have friend who is a member of our church and a RN. who have a mission in Haiti. She goes over there every so many months and stay there to help teaches them about personal Hygenes. She always ask the people in churches to donate personal hygenes stuff and stuff like shampoos, soaps , deordants . She alway take it back to Haiti with her. She said they are in great need of personal Hygenes stuff. And it is very poor over there. They need foods and clean drinking water!!! The kids and adults are stuffing. It is sad!!!!